Apple Seeds

O.T.17 "Apple Seeds"     April 3, 2013
Genesis 4-Part 1
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy see and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.  Genesis 3:15 KJV

LET IT GLOW

Lately I have been buying juicy, red delicious apples for us to eat. And delicious they are. Even my granddaughter likes them. well, we had a discussion out the apple coming from a tree, which comes from a seed. She had me save the seeds so we can plant them. I'm not sure it will work, but we will try to grow an apple trees from the seeds.
I didn't want to skip an important point about the seed mentioned in our key verse.

God is speaking to the ones guilty of sin-Satan, Eve, and Adam. He is dishing out the punishments, consequences of their sin. The order of the dishing is this: God is speaking to the serpent, which is possessed by the devil.

1. This cunning serpent is humiliated to a position of slithering through the grass.  
2. God puts enmity between him and the woman; enmity means hostility, hatred. (Most women hate snakes.) The family is attacked by evil in the form of divorce, drugs, alcohol, war, death, illness, pride, rebellion, adultery,etc.
3. Enmity, hatred, will always be between the Devil's seed, referring to demons (created angels, not increasing in numbers) and Eve's seed, man in the form of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Keep in mind the Satan didn't know which man the seed would be.
4. He will bruise the Devil's head and the Devil bruised His heel. I'm sure the Devil thought he "got Him" when Jesus died on the cross. The opposite is actually true-God's will was accomplished, redemption for man is provided. Hope is not dead, but alive, with Jesus rising from the dead on the third day.
5. The Devil's time, final punishment, is coming. We read about it in Revelation 19:20; 20:10.
6. The Devil was left guessing who the Deliverer would be, so he kept trying to destroy the seed of the woman, the chosen Jew. He tried to accomplish it through Cain, Esau, Pharoah, David's sons, Jehoshophat's sons, Jehu, Ashasuerus, Herod, Nazareth's citizens. God was always in control and always protecting the lineage of the Messiah.
7. The ultimate is inevitable-the Devil looses in the end!!!

That is good news to me. Amidst the sinning and consequences, good comes out of the bad. (Of course, those people didn't see it at that time in their life.)

LET IT GROW

Shall we go onto chapter 4?

Here we have another first-the first children, which leads to the first pregnancy, and the first birth. (Poor Eve didn't have another woman to share her discomforts and joys like we do/did.)
What do we know about these two brothers?
 Liberty Bible Commentary has this to say:

• Cain was born first, then Abel; Cain, in Hebrew is the word qayin, meaning to acquire or get; Abel, Hebel in Hebrew, means breath or vanity.
• Cain tilled the ground, was a farmer; Abel was a keeper of sheep, a herdsman.
• In the process of time, it came to pass (I like that wording), Cain brought the fruit of the ground as an offering to the Lord; Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and the fat of it. Here is the first true worship and the first false worship. (Many contend that God had commanded Cain and Abel to give offerings, and that He specifically required blood sacrifices. There is no record of this revelation. Most likely Cain's offering was rejected because of his attitude in offering it.
• The Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering; Cain and his offering He did not respect; respect means to have regard, consider, turn, look away. So Abel's offering was acceptable to God and Cain's was not. Abe; desired to give his best, the first and choicest of his possessions; pure devout worship. Cain gave out of formalism (it was time and custom to give).
• Cain's countenance fell and he was wroth. Wroth means burn, be wax hot, be angry, jealousy.
• God warned Cain-If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. (verse 7, NIV) Sin is like a lion crouching at the door of our heart, ready to pounce on us, to devour us.
• Cain did not head the warning and killed his brother, Abel. This was the first murder.
• Cain lied, as his parents had done earlier, to God, who knows all things. Do our children repeat our sins?
• The Lord sent Cain out from the presence of God, as a homeless wanderer, with a mark so no one would kill him. 

Whew! Some of these firsts I could do without.

Unacceptable worship, anger, and lying were the three sins Cain committed that are in our Scriptures.
(MacArthrur)

Hebrews 11:4 states: By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Which speaks loudest, my righteousness or my sins?
How strong is our faith?
Do we have any hidden sins that need to be confessed and forsaken?

LET IT GO

Obey God in all things.

Confess my sins.

Beware of temptations.